Disqus - Friends of aaronwhite

Re: mills baker - Searchlights and anti-aircraft fire over Los...

mills — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 19:39:15 -0000

I am sure the actors are all quite good; I like Aaron Eckhart a lot, and have for years! But good actors can't help a bad script, and this script is bad.

I support bad movies being made in Louisiana if it brings us money, of course, and bad movies often do very well commercially. But none of that stops them from being bad!

I'd say we'll have to wait and see, but I would be surprised if I could muster the will to see it at the theater, even though it's shot partially near my mansion. I guess I'll have to to resolve this dispute!

Re: When someone amazing leaves the company

bijan — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 16:56:28 -0000

i think that is particularly true at larger companies. in startups and medium sized companies it's a bit easier

but your point is an interesting one for sure. i wanna think more about that one.

Re: Baba O’Riley - The Who Forgive me for the back to... - bijansabet.com

bijan — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 15:41:03 -0000

Thx. I'll take a listen over on your blog.

-bijan

Re: mills baker - His mind was too active to be an accurate...

mills — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 12:34:36 -0000

I cannot imagine someone not considering Mr. Death one of the finest films ever made. Just behind it, in my view, are The Thin Blue Line and The Fog of War, the fame of whose subjects slightly reduces the power of Morris' exploratory genius. I also love Fast, Cheap & Out of Control very much.

You're right about characters; it's sort of embarrassing!

Re: Locking a Reference to a Fixed Row or Column in Google Spreadsheets

andrewparker — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 12:02:20 -0000

We really need an ibanking ninja. Those guys' hands never lead the
keyboard. I wish I knew more about scripting in VB. But, that's not
goog sheets.

Re: mills baker - His mind was too active to be an accurate...

mills — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 11:57:58 -0000

I think there's a lot of truth to that; indeed, it's what makes Errol Morris' fixation on the iterations of truth at a low level and how they assume the mantle of the narratives that their perceivers desire interesting to me. That is: truth is frangible, narrative is distorting and convincing, and I am happy to use this -and your comment- as an excuse the next time I'm derided for not recalling something important.

I didn't like the Tim Burton movie Big Fish, but I did think: at last, an apologia for jerks like me!

Re: Locking a Reference to a Fixed Row or Column in Google Spreadsheets

andrewparker — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 11:34:00 -0000

I'd be happy to participate, but couldn't lead. I'm self-taught and
thus still a bit rookie.

Also I rarely use goog sheets. Typically use excel.

Happy to join though.

Re: Locking a Reference to a Fixed Row or Column in Google Spreadsheets

andrewparker — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 08:28:27 -0000

Yup, both.

Re: When someone amazing leaves the company

bijan — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 17:30:41 -0000

you are right. my typo. i'll fix. thx.

Re: mills baker - First, we will set up a single goal to represent...

mills — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 15:18:43 -0000

I agree, but we had very fortunate family contexts (in this sense at least!); for poorer folks with different upbringing, it doesn't seem to be worth it to spend tens of thousands of dollars making new friends in dorms far away from mom while getting drunk and cribbing notes on American lit.

Re: mills baker - First, we will set up a single goal to represent...

mills — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 15:17:15 -0000

I didn't want to say it, but that's exactly right. I think the whole thing is at least as transparently a "complex" as the relationship between the military and the defense industry. Specialization and hyperspecialization and endless commentary are part of that, too.

Re: mills baker - First, we will set up a single goal to represent...

mills — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 15:16:21 -0000

Keep dreaming, home skillet!

Re: mills baker - Birthdays and Joy

mills — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 14:55:00 -0000

Oh, thank you! I appreciate that; it's to Lewis' credit. He's a favorite.

Re: mills baker - Birthdays and Joy

mills — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 13:48:23 -0000

A rare comment from ND! That makes my day. Thank you! The book is very wonderful, too.

Re: mills baker - Birthdays and Joy

mills — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 13:20:35 -0000

It's a Tumblr feature everyone has, but only for "Text" posts. I think the idea is that this will hopefully permit you to post longer pieces without claiming so much Dashboard space? I don't know; it's been a while since that whole controversy about post length flared again.

Think I should remove it? I didn't realize it shows on my blog, too; that makes it look like I want clickthroughs or something, doesn't it? I don't know. This is stressful.

Re: mills baker - Rebirth Brass Band - When the Saints Go Marching...

mills — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 13:11:12 -0000

I am marshaling all social networks here and communications protocols here, Matt!

Re: The Stupak Amendment

mills — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 23:00:18 -0000

That's a great point about referendums, but I'm not yet sold on democracy totally anyway. People in aggregate are very difficult.

Re: The Stupak Amendment

mills — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 22:59:38 -0000

Getting yelled at is horrible; it's why I never say what I believe. That's also because I don't believe in anything (cue Jeffrey Lebowski: "Looks exhausting."). Your analysis is totally correct, I think, but will be hard for the noisemakers of the party to accept without ire.

Democracy! Too messy! We're actually very lucky it's messy, I think.

Re: mills baker - My parents just returned from Spain, and my father...

mills — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 14:26:19 -0000

What a wonderful quote!

Re: What Good Is a College Education?

mills — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 11:29:01 -0000

"...as though they would become little more than vocational programs. Also, how would this be implemented beyond the obvious sectors where professional licensing is already required?"

Hey, Bunnynico! Those are both good points; I imagine I do Murray a disservice in trying to answer them. I think the first issue is that, in Murray's view, a democratic acceptance of what most people seem to want, based on the popular majors these days, the rates of graduation, and so on, requires that we admit it: vocational programs are preferred by many, so long as they're not stigmatized.

The many arguments to be made in support of a liberal or humanities-oriented education, principally that it better-prepares people for citizenship and human thoughtfulness and awareness, must be contextualized: not everyone wants that, or cares, and we ought not decide for them what is best. In the not-too-distant past, when education was less common, everyone had a vocational education: apprenticeships, for example.

This does not forbid general courses, but four years is a long time. I think you hit the nail on the head when you mentioned our institutions motive for financial expansion. It is in no college's interests to abbreviate coursework, focus it on what is requires, and get students out.

The second element is beyond me, personally. I mean: I don't know! Murray perhaps has some idea!

Last, I want to note this:

As a result, they often fail to develop the critical thinking, communication skills and logic that are often byproducts of a traditional BA program (for students who participate), yet they're important skills for virtually every profession. I have two siblings who attended schools for design and architecture, who were appalled by this lack in their curriculum.

I have observed recently that, as far as I can tell, most of the skills you mention are not byproducts of the traditional BA program but are, in fact, correlated with its pursuit; that is, they are qualities of mind and focus that come mostly from upbringing, early education, or -if we believe S. Pinker- genetics. However we slice it, it seems to me the case that very few people change dramatically or even substantially in the course of the BA.

Note that your siblings went to schools without coursework designed to increase those skills and were appalled; how were they appalled? Because they already knew what ought to be developed; they already had such skills.

I don't believe my mind has changed very much since high school. Feel free to make whatever jokes occur at once! But it is the case, then, that Bard -for its absurd cost- was a drug vacation in which I barely attenuated what I already had.

Re: What Good Is a College Education?

mills — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 11:18:51 -0000

Hey Squashed! Let me try and answer those questions. You ask about the 42%; the majority, the DOE concluded, were not academically able to keep up. As I mentioned in my post, I wouldn't have understood this objection ten years ago, but in the past decade living and working among poorer people I've met people who haven't heard of "Vietnam," believed in unicorns, and were almost universally creationists. I don't mean to slander them; they are ignorant to a degree I wouldn't have thought possible because of their schools and their milieus, and they aren't really worse off for it.

But they are pressured to go to LSU, Southern, and the community colleges where they will not be sufficiently literate or leaned to pass, a fact that will only become clear to them after they've wasted a lot of money; then they will be "college-drop-outs." My company requires a college degree for management positions; almost none of our entry-level people have them. Think about what that means for their careers!

I live among law students and lawyers, and your figure seems right (or even conservative) to me. But perhaps you'd be surprised at how many LSU students are exactly the same way in undergrad: they don't give a damn about any of it, and just want to party and survive the courses. I cannot tell you the malaise and indifference I've seen, and it's better at LSU than at Southern!

It is well and good for us to say that "Electives, in theory, should encourage people to explore areas they hadn't thought they were interested in." But electives aren't elective; it is one of the great misnomers of academic life. And the people forced to take them, by and large, aren't exploring or growing; they are surviving, with irritation, until they can get out.

You and I and Ross and I might not like this, but part of the problem is that the BA doesn't respect the abilities or interests of many Americans; it is a one-size-fits all standard that is in the interests of universities and people like us, but not in the interests of those who want to start earning money and living their lives but cannot without this arbitrary and unfair goal for the pursuit of which they are unprepared.

Hey, Ross! I don't know about Murray's proposal, which I am sure he can defend better than I. "The barrier is important, and I feel that even if a student decides to sleepwalk his way through an elective, it's still necessary."

What is the barrier keeping out? And what is it letting in? And what connection does its sifting have with the capacities of our workforce, the interests of our thinkers, and the creation of an underclass carrying heavy loan debt, with no degree and thus few job prospects? That is the question.

I know IT certifications are problematic; I think that mostly has to do with the industry and how product-driven they tend to be. The next time you want an accountant, though, you'll probably not regard the CPA as nonsense. For most jobs where people have to know how to do something, there is already a certification program: it's called graduate school. Lawyers and doctors need separate schooling. Pilots don't get on the job-training after studying Marketing and waiting for the weekend football games. So in fields where specific knowledge matters, we require certification; there's nothing new in that.

Re: What Good Is a College Education?

mills — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 21:32:36 -0000

But you and Squashed have demolished a straw man! Neither Murray nor Brissenden nor I -all, it's worth noting, academic or intellectually-inclined people- said anything against liberal education, literary studies, analytical abilities, the humanities, philosophy, or anything of the sort. To me personally, there is no finer, more useful education than that offered by the liberal arts, by what learns from novels, from the humanities, etc. I've made that point many times.

But that's not what 80% of university students encounter, and you know it: here in Louisiana, most students labor in curricula that have no depth or intensity at all; they don't read the novels assigned; they muddle through the history taught by disengaged professors; they take liberals arts as electives only because their degree in "business" or "marketing" requires it; and they struggle through it all while racking up huge bills.

Murray cites a DOE study that determined that 42% of those entering college do not obtain a degree. You and Squashed and I have the luxury of waxing about how we've earned "critical thinking skills" and so on, but for the poorer -and I mean the really poor- who did not enter college knowing what, say, the Reformation was or the Theory of Relativity -and there are many such people, more than most know- this is nonsense. They learn no such things by trying, and failing, to understand Faulkner.

This is not about vocational studies versus the liberal humanist tradition. It isn't an indictment of idle scholarship or thought for its own sake. It is a condemnation of one thing: the standard of the BA as the "ticket to the dance" in American society. You can't get interviews without one, yet many students cannot earn one and most jobs do not actually require one.

Murray, for what it's worth, proposes an alternative: certifications. No company hires a senior accountant based on his fucking major! He must be a CPA. This tests what he needs to know to do his job. Certifications -without the dispiriting "electives" cruft that please all us clever folk without doing those who want to be managers and marketers and designers and so on any demonstrable good at all while costing them thousands and often flunking them out- can be earned in just a couple of years, and will not be what our universities now are:

Rooms in which 10% of students give a fuck, the rest don't and are just waiting for the "degree" so they can start making money, and almost half cannot graduate and will be stigmatized forever.

Re: The AVC Reader Census

andrewparker — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 14:55:00 -0000

I've been googling for the past 15 minutes trying to find a great
google thread between @bfeld and a bunch of his followers about the 3
best sci fi books (which he coined the holy trinity). Cant find it so
ill paraphrase. Snow crash and neuromancer were automatic, but there
was much debate over the third... Some said Dune, others were any Dick
(so prolific that they can't choose), any Arthur c Clark (similar
problem). If you can find the thread, there are great ideas there.

Any way, start with snow crash.

Andrew

Re: Android's Affordances

andrewparker — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 14:49:03 -0000

@fromedome said it best on the keyboard. It so bad that vzw should
just ship the Droid glued shut ;)

Re: The Trunk

mills — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 14:45:41 -0000

If you ban me, I will personally make American a socialist dictatorship of the proletarian vanguard.